Tuesday, February 25, 2014

There is Good in People...Look for it.

If you were mugged for your wallet, what would you do? The obvious choice is to give up the money...people who are desperate enough to steal from others with a weapon (of any kind) are probably desperate enough to use it, and you shouldn't chance it.

My grandmother is 4'10"-ish...There's only one of her 20 or so grandchildren that hasn't surpassed her in height yet and he is about 5 years old...so he has some time. Point is, she's a little lady. She once told me that she had a plan...if anyone ever tried to hurt her or steal from her, she said "I'd ask what his/her mother or grandmother would feel."

It touches the core of people to reflect on things they have been taught and on people that they love. People are good but sometimes they become so desperate (and for a plethora of reasons that I am not here to defend nor to judge) that they lose hope and can't trust in goodness, alone, to get by.

A man who was mugged offered his jacket as the teen mugger went off. And the teen came back. The man took him to dinner and showed him what it is to be kind and genuinely interested in the well-being of others, even when at the disadvantage of having just handed over his wallet. And you know what he found? Good. He found a lost kid who was desperate and in need of some hope and that's what the victim gave him. In return, he got his wallet back and the kid's knife, which he asked for. There is good in both parties in this story.